Cinema: Quick Cuts

THE EFFECT OF GAMMA RAYS ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS. Adapted from Paul
Zindel's 1971 Pulitzer-prizewinning play, this saga of a bitchy, boozy
mother and the two daughters she victimizes is sentimental without
really being tender, naturalistic without being real. The elder
daughter (Roberta Wallach), a callipygous, gum-snapping high school
cheerleader, suffers from epileptic seizurespresumably a result of
life with mother. The younger, ethereal offspring (Nell Potts) escapes
into the world of scientific research. She wins a prize for a school
experiment concerning the supposed deleterious effects of gamma rays on
sensitive marigolds: some survive, it seems, blooming beautifully. The
parallel between flowers...